Click on the NK cell maturation graphic so you can watch the video and don't have to read Carl.

OK youse guys, gather around and take a knee. Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

The problem with this whole pandemic think issue is the absence of adequate medical counter-measures! Why is that you ask? Excellent question, Carl.

Every time a new antibiotic resistant bacterium emerges we go into a full-blown panic to develop a new antibiotic. Same with a new virus with pandemic potential. Rush to develop a new vaccine- e.g. the excitement surrounding the newly discovered "spike protein on the virus.

I call this the "see bug- kill bug approach. So what's wrong with that? Sit down Carl and pay attention. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics induces antibiotic resistance. So developing new antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria is merely repeating the same experiment while expecting a different outcome.

Humans have been confronted with these challenges over millions of years of evolution and yet here we are. The better question is what are the natural defense mechanisms and how can they be pharmaceutically exploited to provide resistance?

Vaccine development is one strategy. Exploiting the innate arm of the immune response (see link provided above) is another. We are still in the infancy of being able to fully exploit this strategy. I published a paper in 2012 that is the first such attempt. We are continuing to push the envelope on this. [NLRP3 Inflammasome is a Target for Development of Broad-Spectrum Anti-Infective Drugs Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 2012, 56(4):1921. Carol M. Artlett, Sihem Sassi-Gaha, Mitali Purohit, Richard F. Rest and James D. Thacker]

Remember when parents had "measles parties" to make sure that their kid got the measles done with, so it didn't infect them later as an adult? Maybe we should be culturing the virus from people who don't show symptoms...

snip
The researchers tested 126 people who were returning to Germany after recent travel from China. On the flight, 10 people were isolated because they were at high risk of being infected — some had symptoms, and others had contact with people who were infected.

As soon as the plane touched down, these 10 passengers were taken to a hospital and tested for the virus. None were positive.

Doctors examined the rest of the passengers at a medical assessment center at the airport. One passenger had a fever, a hard time breathing, and a cough. He was also tested, and was negative for the virus.

In a last step, researchers offered testing to the remaining 115 people who were on board the plane and who had passed their screening checks.

In a surprise twist, two of these seemingly healthy passengers tested positive for the virus. Two different labs confirmed their test results.

The passengers who tested positive were whisked to a hospital, where an exam showed that one had a very slight sore throat and a faint rash. Both remained well and never ran a fever in the week after they were admitted to the hospital.

More worrisome, when the virus that was isolated from the two passengers was placed in a test tube with healthy cells, it was able to infect them. That means it's possible they could have passed the disease on to others, even when they had few to no symptoms themselves.

"We do not yet know if they could have infected other people, but that is conceivable," says Sandra Ciesek, MD, head of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt. She says there's no evidence that they did.
snip

The New England Journal of Medicine: "Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Returning Travelers from Wuhan, China."

In a last step, researchers offered testing to the remaining 115 people who were on board the plane and who had passed their screening checks.

In a surprise twist, two of these seemingly healthy passengers tested positive for the virus. Two different labs confirmed their test results. [So, in other words, testing for asymptomatic persons remains optional? - in the face of evidence that the practice misses the mark.]

The passengers who tested positive were whisked to a hospital, where an exam showed that one had a very slight sore throat and a faint rash. Both remained well and never ran a fever in the week after they were admitted to the hospital.

More worrisome, when the virus that was isolated from the two passengers was placed in a test tube with healthy cells, it was able to infect them. That means it's possible they could have passed the disease on to others, even when they had few to no symptoms themselves.

"We do not yet know if they could have infected other people, but that is conceivable," says Sandra Ciesek, MD, head of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt. She says there's no evidence that they did. [And you know this because you've been following up everyone they're in contact with?]

Heh. What's the criteria for determining if learning is taking place again...?

__________________
"Civil Wars don't start when a few guys hunt down a specific bastard. Civil Wars start when many guys hunt down the nearest bastards."

The coin paid to enforce words on parchment is blood; tyrants will not be stopped with anything less dear. - QP Peregrino

I was looking up N95 masks a week ago on Amazon and found a set of 2 packs of 10 3M Aura Particulate Disposable Respirator 9211, NIOSH for roughly $55.00 IIRC. As a guy who is always tinkering in the sorcerer's laboratory, those would fit much nicer than the usual clam shell models. However, since this virus is spreading I thought I might go back and move said masks from my "wish list" into my checkout basket. When I clicked on my list this evening, they were listed as "sold out"/"don't know when they'll be available.

I was a bit stunned so I poked around for similar products and clicked on an exact copy of the set from another listing. It read, "See buying options". Click on the button and they're now listed for $185.00. Guess I should have seen that coming.

Other similar products are rated all over the place. 3M are usually listed high while others are criticized as being crap.

__________________
"It is a brave act of valor to condemn death, but where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live." -Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)

We're remodeling at our place so while at Lowe's this past week, my wife and I decided to take a stroll down the respirator isle just to see what their inventory was like. The young gentleman stocking on the same isle saw us looking at 2 of the 3M N100/P100 safety masks. He told us if you want those you might wanna go ahead and purchase them, because a group came in earlier and purchased 100 of those masks, all our replacement filters, and those 2 are the only ones we have left at our location. Get em' while you can.

It's a big number, but a small percentage. Don't fall for that. Plus, if you have a 401(k) you are buying in cheaply now. It hurts retirees because they don't usually have more money to invest but, if it was managed correctly, they should be fine. We are and we're fine. (We "lost" the equivalent of a Chevy Suburban today, though. )

__________________"Hector Lives!"

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." -- Frederick Douglass

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen." -- Dennis Prager

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." --H.L. Mencken

It's a big number, but a small percentage. Don't fall for that. Plus, if you have a 401(k) you are buying in cheaply now. It hurts retirees because they don't usually have more money to invest but, if it was managed correctly, they should be fine. We are and we're fine. (We "lost" the equivalent of a Chevy Suburban today, though. )

Wait until the true magnitude sinks in. They’re out of several critical abx at my daughter's shop, a major state health magnet, and are told no resupply is in sight.

A corner was turned last Friday. All major epidemiologist and the CDC have said containment is impossible, expect a major outbreak in the US.

And do you know how many COVID19 diagnostic tests were processed in the last ten days in the US? Sixteen per day. Sixteen. That’s all CDC can do. No surge capacity either. They’re stretched at 16. South Korea has been averaging 1700 tests per day and can handle 4000/day surge.

Every once in a while a legitimate crisis reveals how corrupt things have gotten. We're there.

The twitterverse is abuzz with news of harsh Chinese crackdowns and the arrests of crematoria managers who yesterday reported that death figures were total fiction. They said each of 15 crematoriums have been processing 100 corpses per day, were running 24/7 for the last two weeks, and the equipment was breaking down and they can’t get spare parts.

Doctors and crematoria staff have been told any discussion of deaths will result in severe punishment.

There are reports, with pics, that 40 portable industrial incinerators have been emplaced in Wuhan that can process 5 tons/day each. The regime says to destroy medical waste.